The Export-Import Bank of China has provided a loan of approximately Yn86.5m (US$13m) to the state-owned Pakistani commercial satellite operator Paksat. The loan will help fund the development of the ground control system for the forthcoming Paksat-1R…
The Export-Import Bank of China has provided a loan of approximately Yn86.5m (US$13m) to the state-owned Pakistani commercial satellite operator Paksat. The loan will help fund the development of the ground control system for the forthcoming Paksat-1R communications satellite.
The loan agreement was signed by Pakistani Ambassador to China Masood Khan, on behalf of the country’s Economic Affairs Division, and the Chinese ECA.
The move is a continuation of China’s central involvement in the Paksat project. Back in October 2008, the Pakistan Space Research Commission of the Upper Atmosphere (SUPARCO) signed a contract with China Great Wall Industry Corporation to construct Paksat-1R. The following October, the contract for the ground control segment of the satellite was signed during Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s visit to China.
To fund the construction of the satellite, China ExImbank has provided a loan facility worth approximately US$180m, a sum that constitutes around 80% of the total US$220m cost of the Paksat-1R project. As with similar ECA backed loans for satellite systems, the China ExImbank facility is understood to be on favourable terms with a lengthy maturity and low interest.
Paksat-1R is due to be launched on August 14, 2011 via a Long March 3B rocket. The new satellite, which is to carry 18 Ku-band transponders and 12 C-band transponders, will replace Paksat-1 at the 38E orbital slot.
Paksat-1R is to be based on the China Great Wall’s DFH4 platform, the same bus that recently suffered an in-orbit anomaly in the Sinosat-6 spacecraft. That malfunction represented the third commercial DFH4 to suffer a partial failure in the recent past and this is expected to mean that the upcoming launch plus one insurance placement for Paksat-1R will prove a challenge.
